LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - March 8, 2013) -Kontenta online furniture store has warned other furniture stores to avoid the kind of risky marketing technique that saw one American company make a huge loss recently.

Ahead of the Super Bowl showdown, Baltimore-based retailer Gardiners Furniture made a bet with fans of its hometown team, the Baltimore Ravens.

Store co-owner Gary Mullaney pledged that if the Ravens returned the opening kick-off for a touchdown at the start of either half of the game against the San Francisco 49ers, all furniture purchased by customers between January 31st and 3pm on the day of the game (February 4th) would be free of charge.

Super Bowl experts say that the odds of a player returning a kick for a touchdown are about 300-1 - and before this game, no player had achieved the feat on this particular occasion in almost 50 years.

Mullaney hadn't banked on Ravens' star player Jacoby Jones however, who returned the second-half kick-off 108 yards for a touchdown - costing the store a reported $600,000 in free furniture.

In the current economic climate some furniture companies may be tempted to take such unnecessary risks to promote their products, but Kontenta cautioned against a similar gimmick in the future.

A spokesperson said: "Our policy has always been to concentrate on a more genuine proposition such as good value for money or short delivery times, and we find that works for our customers.

"We've always avoided risky marketing strategies but at least Gardiners had the good sense to put an insurance policy in place, which effectively protected them against their substantial losses."